Idris
Goodwin
He // Him // His
[ID: Idris, a Black man with a beard, smiles broadly with teeth and everything. He is wearing a black collard shirt.]
Colorado Springs, CO
2021 USA Fellow
This award was generously supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
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Over two decades, Idris Goodwin has forged a multifaceted career as an award-winning scriptwriter for stage and screen, breakbeat poet, director, educator, and organizer. Committed to using the arts to spark meaningful conversation, Goodwin serves as the director of the interdisciplinary Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.
His critically acclaimed works And in This Corner: Cassius Clay, How We Got On, Hype Man: A Break Beat Play, and Free Play: Open Source Scripts Toward an Antiracist Tomorrow are widely produced across the country at professional theaters, college campuses, and nontraditional spaces alike. His poetry collections include Can I Kick It? and These Are the Breaks. Goodwin has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry, Sesame Street, NPR, BBC Radio, and the Discovery Channel. He serves on the advisory boards of both the Theatre for Young Audiences USA and the Childrens Theatre Foundation of America; he is cohost of the Same Old New School podcast on Vocalo radio.
Goodwin has been honored to receive developmental support from institutions such as the Kennedy Center in New York, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage in Washington, DC, and the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.
Portrait photo courtesy of the artist.